In the concert celebrating the Tsinghua University’s 110th anniversary, Fang Jinlong, a master of the traditional Chinese instrument pipa, and three robots from the Tsinghua Moja Robot Band performed several Chinese music pieces. “I’m happy to see our performance can mix (融合) science and technology with traditional Chinese culture,” said Fang.
The robot band was founded in 2018. The band name “Moja” is from Mohism, one of many schools of thought before the Qin Dynasty. It is made up of three robot musicians, Yuheng, Yaoguang and Kaiyang, named after three stars. They played three kinds of traditional Chinese instruments: the bamboo flute (长笛), Chinese harp (竖琴) and paigu (牌鼓), a set of Chinese drums, at the concert. The team behind the band include students, teachers and graduates from Tsinghua University. They have professional backgrounds such as computing, mechanical (机械的) engineering and music composition (作曲).
The team’s chief scientist Mi Haipeng is an associate professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Tsinghua. He took part in the research and development of a robot rock band when he studied in Japan. That experience inspired his dream to make a Chinese robot band.
Mi said traditional Chinese instruments’ sound and playing techniques are different from those of Western musical instruments. The focus is more on the artistic conception (概念) and expression of the players. This kind of non-quantitative (非定量的) control brings challenges to Moja robot development. “In our research, we continuously explore how to solve these problems so that the robots can maintain the Chinese traditional characteristics when playing music,” he added.
Mi said the music pieces in the concert were specially made for the robots to play. The robots’ stage clothes were made with 3D-printing technology. He added that there are more performance plans for Moja in the future, introducing new music pieces. The team, meanwhile, would improve the musical expression of the robots.
【小题1】What is the performance like according to Fang Jinlong?| A．traditional yet creative | B．modern and fashionable |
| C．funny yet meaningful | D．dynamic and inspiring |
| A．It has a stable performing style. |
| B．Its name came from online language. |
| C．It successfully mixes high-tech and tradition. |
| D．Its performers play western musical instruments. |
| A．In paragraph 2. | B．In paragraph 3. |
| C．In paragraph 4. | D．In paragraph 5. |
| A．Create more new robot musicians. |
| B．Get the robots to practise more often. |
| C．Design new clothes for the robots. |
| D．Improve the robots’ musical performance. |
